| People v White |
| 2025 NYSlipOp 07108 [244 AD3d 599] |
| December 18, 2025 |
| Appellate Division, First Department |
| Published by New York State Law Reporting Bureau pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431. |
| The People of the State of New York, Respondent, v Mark White, Appellant. |
Twyla Carter, The Legal Aid Society, New York (Naila S. Siddiqui of counsel), for appellant.
Alvin L. Bragg, Jr., District Attorney, New York (Andrew Kim of counsel), for respondent.
Crimes - Plea of Guilty - Sufficiency of Allocution - Circumstances of Plea Not Coercive
Appeal
- Waiver of Right to Appeal
- Forfeit of Right to Challenge Molineux Ruling
Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (James M. Burke, J.), rendered July 23, 2019, convicting defendant, upon his guilty plea, of sex abuse in the first degree, and sentencing him to a jail term of one year, unanimously affirmed.
Under the totality of the circumstances (see People v Conceicao, 26 NY3d 375, 383 [2015]; see also People v Crowder, 24 NY3d 1134, 1136-1137 [2015]), including the participation by counsel, the seriousness of the crime, the reasonableness of the plea offer, and defendant's experience in the criminal justice system, the plea was not the result of coercion. Although the court rejected defendant's request for a one-day adjournment and required him to make a decision regarding the plea offer by the end of day, the circumstances of the plea were not coercive as defendant had sufficient time to consult with his attorneys and members of his family prior to entering the plea (see People v Luckey, 149 AD3d 414, 415 [1st Dept 2017], lv denied 29 NY3d 1082 [2017]).
Defendant forfeited a challenge to the court's allegedly erroneous Molineux ruling by pleading guilty and waiving his right to appeal and is foreclosed from relying on the alleged error indirectly by asserting that it vitiated the voluntariness of his guilty plea (see People v Hutter, 143 AD3d 574, 575 [1st Dept 2016], lv denied 28 NY3d 1125 [2016]; People v Smith, 130 AD3d 411, 411 [1st Dept 2015], lv denied 26 NY3d 1043 [2015]). Concur—Webber, J.P., Gesmer, González, Pitt-Burke, Higgitt, JJ.